At last, today has come. Yes, we could successfully complete the intensive observations on and off Bengkulu to study weather and climate systems for two months as the first IOP under the YMC.
(KY)

ps.
Ohhh, please don’t forget the MJO convection is approaching! Although our IOP has ended today, routine observation by the local agencies will continue, and such data will also be available for the YMC community. This is a great advantage of YMC!

The end of YMC-Sumatra 2017 IOP is approaching. Although today is not the day of ending but eve, we had a meeting, where we expressed our sincere thanks to the local including the state government, navy, police, port authority, airport authority, University of Bengkulu, BPPT, and BMKG.

Over 50 people attended. I’m sure we, YMC-Sumatra 2017 participants, will soon come back here to report our results, since feedback to the local is required as one of major YMC activities. (KY)

Forty days passed swiftly by since R/V MIRAI entered Indonesian EEZ, and today she left it. We have made lots of observations during the period, including more than 350 radiosonde soundings, more than 220 CTD casts, more than 220 TurboMAP casts, and nearly 9,000 volume scans of weather radar. Luckily, we performed almost all of the observation items we had planned, and we completed 3-hourly routine observations without missing data at the station point. Our final radiosonde launch was done in the presence of the captain and security officer, only 2 hours before the leaving, which was successful as usual. I, as the chief scientist of this research cruise, am most grateful to all of the researchers, technicians, and vessel crew from the captain on down for their great efforts. (Satoru Yokoi)

After 2 weeks off from Bengkulu, I came back here again for continuing the radar and balloon observation. The situation was slightly changed from last month, it was dry and less rainfall last month but when I came here three days ago, the condition much more humid, cloudy, even rain like today. We just have rain with strong wind around 11 AM today.

During the observation at BMKG Fatmawati, young observer come here to study about rawinsonde launching, they are university students from Bengkulu University. One of the BMKG Staff teach them how to operate the system and launch the balloon, they look happy, enthusiasm, and eager to learn. They may become new scientist in the future! (Credit photos by Dr. Wu). RS.

In the evening on January 5, 2018, Bengkulu was hit by a surface wind gust. A sudden strong northwesterly wind occurred at 19:20 LT (12:20 UTC), and continued for about 30 minutes, with a maximum wind speed of 18.5 m/s (Fig.1). One of the ventilated case for meteorological instruments of BMKG was sadly crushed by the strong wind (Fig. 2). Radar observations showed that at 17:00 LT, a squall line which was orientated northeast-southwest over the sea to the northwest of Bengkulu moved southeastward, approaching to Bengkulu. Then, at 19:20 LT, the squall line passed over Bengkulu Meteorological Observatory (Fig. 3, 19:30 LT), accompanied by the strong gust of wind. Often, gusts of wind have large influence on landing and takeoff of airplanes. Therefore, observation data obtained from the YMC field campaign are useful for study of the mechanism of surface wind gust formation, improving our knowledge and prediction of strong winds.
(Dyah, Dodi and Wu)

Indonesian colleagues from BPPT and BMKG visited the R/V Mirai at Jakarta port today. The chief scientist, Dr. Satoru YOKOI, expressed our deep appreciation for their great support and emphasized the importance of continuous cooperation for the air-sea interaction observations. Indonesian colleagues made a tour of the vessel’s equipments and fruitful discussion with us. Again, thank you very much for your cooperation.

At the end of year, I joined a happy new year party at BMKG office. In the morning, they prepared “Sate” during free time. At night, BBQ and Karaoke festival were held under the eaves. There were not only BMKG worker but also their families and friends. After Kira-Kira 23LT, many fire works were launched near the courst.

By the way, I sang a Japanese song and I realized it was difficult to read and sing roman words of Japanese song. (tk)